


Giri Choco

by Alara J Rogers (AlaraJRogers)



Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: Asian Character, Character of Color, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-18
Updated: 2010-06-18
Packaged: 2017-10-11 13:47:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/113067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlaraJRogers/pseuds/Alara%20J%20Rogers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hoshi Sato celebrates Valentine's Day in the traditional Japanese way - by giving her boss chocolate. Archer is confused.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Giri Choco

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Where No Woman Story Dice drabblefest. Prompt 15, "Holiday Episode."

"Happy Valentine's Day." Hoshi dropped the box of chocolates on Archer's desk.

She kept her face impassive, trying not to crack up at the expression of confusion on his face. "Hoshi! This is an... unexpected... gift," he said, plainly taken aback. "I... wouldn't have expected chocolates on Valentine's Day from you."

Hoshi laughed, unable to keep a straight face any longer. "Relax, Captain. I'm not expressing my undying love for you. This is _giri choco._"

"_Giri choco?_" He actually didn't mangle the pronunciation, Hoshi noted, and was proud of him.

"It's traditional in Japan to give chocolate to your boss, or superior officer, on Valentine's Day," Hoshi said. "'_Giri choco'_ means 'duty chocolate'."

"'_Choco_'sounds like chocolate."

"It _is_ chocolate. Chocolate comes from South America, remember. Japan's word for it was borrowed from English, which got it from Spanish, which got it from the natives where the cacao plant was grown, more than half a millennium ago."

"That explains it, I suppose. But why was it that you give chocolate to your boss on _Valentine's_ Day? In the West, chocolate's supposed to be a symbol of love."

She found it more funny than offensive that Captain Archer felt the need to tell _her_ about Western customs, as if she hadn't lived half her life in the West or carried a Ph. D. in sociology to go along with the several she had in linguistics. Jonathan Archer was a great guy, but very fond of explaining things that people already knew to them. "I'm not exactly sure how it got started," she admitted, "but originally, it was women giving chocolate to men... generally men who were their co-workers and bosses, though. This was back when women were really just entering the workforce in Japan, and Japan was adopting many of the traditions of the West, but putting their own spin on them. Nowadays, it's really for either sex, and it's become specifically about your boss, not all your co-workers."

Archer had opened the box. "This chocolate is from Earth."

"Well, obviously, Captain. Have you ever eaten reconstituted chocolate? It wouldn't have made much of a gift."

"You've been saving this since we left earth to give it to me for Valentine's Day?"

"I thought that if I was still here by Valentine's Day, I would probably think you deserved a box of chocolate." She smiled. "I never wanted to be here in the first place, and I admit it's been rough, but I've learned so many amazing things in the last several months. So... I just wanted to thank you for dragging me out here."

"Oh." He grinned back at her. "I was pretty sure that would happen eventually, but I'm glad to see it."

"So are you going to try one?"

"I can't even tell what flavors these are."

"The darker colored ones are dark chocolate," Hoshi said. "And I think usually the square ones are caramel. Aside from that I think it's supposed to be an adventure. You go exploring the chocolates."

He bit into a square one. "This is coconut."

"So there are some bugs in my algorithm."

"I'm going to have to test each one, aren't I?"

"Just don't give them to Porthos if it turns out you don't like them," she said. "Chocolate's even worse for dogs than cheese."

He nodded. "Yeah, I've learned that the hard way."

**Author's Note:**

> BTW, giri choco is in fact a Japanese custom. Women give male bosses and co-workers chocolate on Valentine's Day. Apparently men are supposed to return the favor with gifts on White Day in March. Technically speaking, however, since Hoshi is obviously engaging in the custom because Archer is her friend and she thinks he deserves chocolate, this is actually closer to "honmei choco", or "prospective winner chocolate"... although that has dating connotations, or it could be "tomo choco", "friend chocolate", currently given to female friends only, but by the 22nd century platonic friendships between men and women seem to be more common than they are today.


End file.
